


An Offering

by Hexadecimalrebooted



Series: a Pointy Hat [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, swamp witch iruka, witch Iruka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26816791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hexadecimalrebooted/pseuds/Hexadecimalrebooted
Summary: Iruka is woken up in the middle of the night by screaming. What he finds isn't what he expects.
Series: a Pointy Hat [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955893
Comments: 3
Kudos: 64





	An Offering

**Author's Note:**

  * For [microrockets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/microrockets/gifts).



> This was inspired by some amazing art of Iruka as a swamp witch by @microrockets on twitter.
> 
> see the art here: https://mobile.twitter.com/microrockets/status/1312278117784850433?s=21

A scream pierced the air. Iruka sat bolt upright in bed. He panted hard, the fine hairs around his face damp with sweat. The only sound was Iruka’s own gasping breaths. The swamp was still. Even the insects, who were not easily silenced, made no sound. The scream came again, long and loud and terrified. Iruka threw himself from his bed. He pulled on some clothes and grimaced. They were still damp from washing. Things didn’t dry quickly in a swamp. He braided his hair back in to keep it from his face. He pulled on his book belt, his pouch belt and dropped his spell strap over his chest. There was no telling what he was going to face when he left his snug little cottage. He tugged on a pair of sturdy boots and stopped. Iruka spun in a circle, looking around and finally spotted his hat on his work table. He grabbed it and put it firmly on his head. If he was going out into the night to face danger, he would do it as a witch. And what was a witch without their hat? Just some tit that did magic. He may well have been a magician. Or worse yet, a _wizard_.

Iruka walked away from his cottage, picking a path through the swamp by memory rather than the faint light of a crescent moon. He needed to put some distance between himself and his workspace. His collection of spell bits and bobs might interfere with a spell as vague as the one he was about to cast. Iruka pulled a spell paper from his strap and used a piece of graphite to sketch a spell circle in runes and sigils. He pulled a holly berry, a leaf from a four-leaf clover and a chrysanthemum petal from his pouch. He crushed them together with his fingers before smearing them on the paper. He tugged a strand of hair from his own head and wrapped around the paper. He chanted the spell for finding and waited. It took a moment for the spell to take the meaning of such an ambiguous request but finally, the paper shivered and stood rigid with purpose. It pulled from Iruka’s fingers and folded itself into the shape of a moth. It fluttered in confusion before circling Iruka and flying off towards the west. 

The moth’s flight was nonsensical, up and down and winding, much like the insect whose shape it took. The part of the swap it led him to was soggier and harder to travel. The safe, solid spots to walk were fewer and fewer until Iruka was jumping from tufts of weeds to mound of dirt to make sure he wouldn’t end up with boots full of muddy water and algae. Finally, the moth led Iruka to a bit of shore, where the swamp gave way to solid ground. The smell of damp and swamp was not quite so strong there. The frogs sang restlessly. Unafraid but not content. Mixed into the frog song and buzzing of insects was that sound of muffled crying. Iruka trudged forward, annoyed at being woken up in the middle of the night, having to travel to the edge of his swamp and having to deal with a person. Probably some fool had managed to get lost in the foggy damp of the swamp. 

Iruka found them huddle in tall reedy grass. They were small, (terribly small! Iruka realized with shock) and wearing an oversized brown cloak with the hood pulled low. It was a child. Someone had lost a child in his swamp. Iruka crackled with anger. A loud sob escaped from the cloak and small, grubby hands reached out to pull the hood down even further as if that would keep them safe in the swamp. 

“Hello,” Iruka said. 

He crouched down a few feet away from the child. A small hand lifted the hood just enough for little eyes to peak out. 

“I’m Iruka.” 

The sound of sniffling was his only response. Iruka dug into a pouch and pulled out a small candle. He lit it with a twist of his fingers.

“Magic!” The child shrieked. Iruka winced. 

“Yes,” Iruka said, tempting the child to match his volume. “It’s magic. I’m a witch.”

“Really?” 

“Yes, really,” Iruka said, gesturing to his head. “I mean, look at my hat. It’s definitely a witch’s hat.”

“Witch hat!”

The boy nearly burst out of his own cloak, throwing his hood back and flapping his arms. He was so small, with round, chubby cheeks with three sharp marks on either side like whiskers. He had that was caked with mud at the ends, the rest was stuffed into a knit cap that was equally caked in dirt. Even in the weak light of his candle, Iruka could see a dark mark on the boy’s cheek. Someone had struck the poor thing across the face 

“Swamp! Wive here? Stinky.”

Iruka chose to ignore that last part. 

“Yes, I live here. Well, close to here at least.” Iruka paused. “Where do you live?”

The boy’s bright-eyed enthusiasm was snuffed out almost as if it had never been. He shrugged and rubbed his eyes. He snivelled and wouldn’t look Iruka in the face. 

“You, don’t- but you must come from somewhere.”

The boy shrugged. He pulled his cloak more tightly around himself. 

“Norfa-ige.” The reply was mumbled. 

The nearest town was more than twenty miles away. No one wanted to be too close to the swamp. It was a reasonable distance to travel for an adult but not a child as small as the one Iruka was dealing with. He was a bloody toddler. An orphan toddler that could barely speak. 

“I see,” Iruka said keeping his voice soft and gentle. “Did you run away?”

“No.” The word was said with petulant irritation. 

“Then how did you get all the way out here?” 

Iruka held the candle higher and looked at the ground around the boy. There were tracks all over. Enough to tell Iruka there had been several sets of boots marking up the damp dirt. People had brought the boy out here and _left _him. And they had slapped him for trying to follow them when they made to leave. He had been abandoned. Iruka curled his lip back in anger. They thought that he would do something to the poor boy. Some people were so ignorant about what it meant to be a witch.__

__“All right then, you’re coming with me.” Iruka snuffed out the candle and stowed it back in his pouch. “Come here.”_ _

__The boy stood, his cloak puffing up oddly at the back. And that was when Iruka saw them. He had thought the cloak was oversized because it had belonged to someone else much older than the boy currently wearing it. And that was probably true, but it also served the purpose of hiding the furred tails the boy had. Iruka reached over and pulled off the dirty knit cap. Two sweet little brown-red ears were pressed to his skull. The boy was a fox. A nine-tailed one at that, Iruka noted after a quick count. People were so foolish and careless with what they threw away. Iruka scooped the boy up into his arms. Wise witches took what was offered to them._ _

__“What is your name, my little offering?” Iruka asked._ _

__“Noo-to.”_ _

__“New toe?” Iruka asked, baffled._ _

__“Naooto,” The boy repeated as if Iruka was very stupid._ _

__Iruka stared at him, puzzled._ _

__“NA-OO-TO!” He shouted._ _

__“Oh! Naruto? Maybe?”_ _

__“YEAH!” The boy- Naruto shrieked._ _

__“All right then, Naruto”, Iruka said. “Let’s go home.”_ _

__Naruto hesitated for a moment before wrapping his arms around Iruka’s neck. Iruka stepped with care. Picking them the safest path back to his cottage, his new son in his arms._ _


End file.
